posted
I'm sure it will be more interesting than a lot of other MMORPG's. From what I have heard in various places, it's going to be a lot more story driven than other games of the type. That was the reason I loved World of Warcraft so much, even though it has lost some luster recently. I would say that as long as it deals a lot with individual character development, and gives the player an opportunity to actually affect what happens in other places, the game should play well.
Posts: 60 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
it won't be combat centered which is good cause in most online games the combat controls are bad.
Posts: 48 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Since it's being made by Egenesis, the creators of A Tale in the Desert, it should do a good job of the society building aspects of the Alvin Maker setting. I played ATITD for almost a year, and I had a lot of fun with it. I'd encourage everyone to give ATITD a try since the software is free and comes with a free 24 hours of play time. I do have a few concerns, however. For one thing, Egenesis is currently a very small company (I believe it is still only two people, although I could be wrong about that number). Since they plan on continuing ATITD after the release of the Alvin Maker game, they will have to bring more people in. Hopefully the shift will be smooth, but there could potentially be a lot of problems switching from a primarily individual project to a team based approach. Also, ATITD was very repetitive at times, which could hurt the Alvin Maker game.
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I don't think theres a market for an MMO right now based on the Alvin Maker series. Not only is the market already oversatured as of recently, (World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Matrix Online, ROSE online, and many more to come) but how the heck is the combat system going to work. There will of course be a magic system, typical of every MMO... and what will that be? The knacks?!?! How do you make knacks into a magic system. And how do you have a story in the Alvin Maker series without Alvin. Everyone is going to want to be Alvin, but there not going to make him playable... Personally, no i can almost gurantee you that this game will never make it off the ground
Posts: 332 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
You can't succeed on the scale of World of Warcraft, perhaps, but that isn't eGenesis's intent. They have succeeded with ATITD by intentionally keeping their community small, committed, and manageable, and scaling their plans accordingly.
The people that WANT to play their kind of game DO. And there are enough of them that the game can continue.
Posts: 1539 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
"you cant have a Sucessful MMO without the emphasis on combat."
Sure you could. Because:
"The people that WANT to play their kind of game DO. And there are enough of them that the game can continue."
Posts: 161 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
The amount of people who will pay monthly to play a noncombat based mmo, will not offset the server costs and the initial development cost.
Posts: 332 | Registered: Apr 2005
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"The amount of people who will pay monthly to play a noncombat based mmo, will not offset the server costs and the initial development cost."
I used to know several people in UO that did nothing but fishing and crafting. The only time they'd engage in any combat is when they would get attacked and not have a choice. So there are definitly people out there who enjoy the non combat aspects of MMORPG. As for me I usually split my time between combat and non combat in those games.
Posts: 29 | Registered: May 2002
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I would say that while WoW was easily the most successful MMO to come out, there are some things that I wish they had changed, and most of the changes are with the non-combat aspect. Having a quest to kill xx monsters is great and all, but I enjoyed the ones that actually had a purpose that didn't include killing someone. Crafting was the most ingenious idea that came to MMO, and I would assume (due to the setting of the Alvin Maker Books) that the game would have a large-scale crafting enviornment.
Posts: 60 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
"I used to know several people in UO that did nothing but fishing and crafting"
Several people, out of the thousands of people who play an MMO will not make a profitable game. Im not trying to stop the developers or anything, i would love to see a GOOD alvin maker game. I just don't think it will happen.
Posts: 332 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:The amount of people who will pay monthly to play a noncombat based mmo, will not offset the server costs and the initial development cost.
Apparently, A Tale in the Desert did well enough that eGenesis was able to launch a sequel AND develop Alvin Maker on the side. I'm not sure what facts you're basing your analysis on.
Posts: 1539 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
While I do hope for decent combat engine in the game, I have played and enjoyed the non-combat side of MMO's. I played Asherons Call for years, and while I enjoyed the whole fighting/leveling and good quest engine, I had a number of characters that were over level 100 and could crafter and tinker with the best of them but couldn't kill a bunny rabbit in game.
Posts: 14 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
I think they're probably planning to have at least SOME combat, but it shouldn't be the sole focus, the way it is in many other MMOs.
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
If Andy Tepper is working on it I'll certainly take a look. ATiTD has been the only MMOG that's gotten me excited for a long time.
Posts: 367 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
so ATiTD is good? I looked at it, but it just did not seem appealing. I couldn't find anything on the site that really gave me an idea of what to expect from the game or to "draw me in" and make me want to try it.
Posts: 14 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
I thought ATiTD was great. But most of my friends found it extremely boring. "No fighting? Gosh, I might as well get off the computer and go outside." Okay, so nobody actually said that.
Posts: 367 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
LMAO I know what you mean. When I first started playing an MMORPG my roommate at the time would come in my room and he just said to me "All you ever do is run around, I never see you DO anything" ... a week later he was so hooked on the same game.
Posts: 14 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
I think everyone underestimates how ridiculously huge the non-combatant populations of current MMORPGs are.
Correction: people underestimate how large the populations are when there are viable, interesting things to do that aren't combat related.
Everquest 2, for a recent example, had an enormous crafting community because they created a system in which you didn't have to be a combatant - EVER - to achieve success as a crafter, and being a crafter was every bit as difficult as being an adventurer, but in a different way.
Games like WoW, on the other hand, have crafting systems that are pure grinds and have very few viable end products to make them worth your time - not to mention that it takes less than 24 hours of total play time to go from zero skill to maximum skill in any branch of crafting in the game.
If you talk to people who primarily play non-combatant roles in MMORPGs, you'll find that they're generally there for one of two reasons: for the community aspect of working with others in tradeskills, or to achieve power and dominance through economic means (or through reputation). If the Alvin Maker game can offer players an equivilant, it will probably succeed.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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